armageddon | Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

What does it take for international markets to panic? With the debt ceiling due to be hit in a little more than a week, the short answer is that the “full faith and credit of the United States” is still worth quite a lot. We’re only starting to see the first signs of a panic as an auction of 1-month TBills sold at a net rate of 0.355%. If that doesn’t impress you, it’s worth noting that it was one third that a week ago.

Stocks started falling, too, with the DJIA losing just over a percent.

Allright, it’s not much. Gold isn’t budging above $1330 or so per ounce and benchmark 10yr TBills are still comfy at 2.64%. These are probably the best standards to watch for signs of panic as the stalemate goes nowhere.

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Winter Solstice arrives right on schedule this Friday, 21 December, at 11:12 UTC – 5:12 in the morning here by mythical Central Time. It’s being celebrated as the end of the world, probably not because anyone believes that’s going to happen. No Mayan actually predicted such an event, but it is the end of their 13 Baktun cycle. My guess is that the Mayans would have used this as an excuse to celebrate too, although their idea of a “party” often involved horrific acts of violence. It’s a staple of the day.

What really happens is that this is the moment when the North Pole is pointing directly away from the sun and starts its wobble back. The exact moment of change in the orbit is also the moment when the long nights change the least, in keeping with the nature of cycles. Light defines the season for us even more than dark notions of destruction because it is the light that will return. That is more worthy of a party to me.

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